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The ALP's lead candidate for the West Australian Senate poll re-run, who's described the party's members as mad, is a colourful character, federal Labor frontbencher Anthony Albanese says.

Joe Bullock on Thursday night in Perth told the Dawson Society, a Christian group, that Labor needed the unions so it didn't "fly off in a dozen directions following every weird lefty trend that you can imagine".

"Compared to the membership of the Labor Party, which are mad, the unions in the Labor Party provide the commonsense ballast that directs the Labor Party," he said at the function in Perth in November last year.

Labor frontbencher Anthony Albanese has defended one of the party's WA Senate candidates, Joe Bullock over comments made at a function last year. Photo: Alex Ellinghausen

"Joe, of course, is a colourful character. One thing I know about Joe is that he has spent his life standing up for working people as a union official representing shop assistants," Mr Albanese told ABC radio on Friday.

"I know that if he is elected to the Senate tomorrow, as I expect him to be, he will stand up for working people in the national parliament."

The Australian newspaper also reported Mr Bullock had admitted to not voting Labor in 1975, when he backed Malcolm Fraser over Gough Whitlam.

Mr Albanese said Labor was a diverse party.

"I know Joe. He is very sincere in the view that he holds," he said.

Mr Albanese said while Labor's links to the union movement were important, its membership needed to expand.

"I believe the membership should have a direct say in all of our public office preselections as well as electing our delegates to the ALP national conference and to the policy making processes," he said.

Asked about Mr Bullock's anti-same sex marriage views, Labor deputy leader Tanya Plibersek said on Friday that Labor had a conscience vote on the issue.

"He's someone who's worked hard for the working people of Western Australia for 30 years," she told Nine Network.